Free Highland Hellcat (2010) by Mary Wine Page A

away, but that allowed him to press a light kiss against the side of her neck. Sensation rippled down her body from that touch, surprising her with how much pleasure her skin might feel.
    “Nay, lass, it is my choice now, because I’ve caught ye, and Highlanders keep the women they manage to steal.”
    She snarled and heard a soft sound that was far too close to a chuckle come from one of his men. Obviously they had company now, and her face flamed to think that her shame was being witnessed. She heard the rope hit the ground near her head before Connor released one of her arms to reach for it. She swung her closed fist toward his head and hissed when it connected. Pain snaked down her arm and into her shoulder, but the grunt she heard from him was worth it.
    “Get yer hands off of me, Connor Lindsey!”
    He threw his leg over her instead and clamped her body between his thighs. She growled as he grabbed one of her wrists, and she felt the rope looping around it. She gritted her teeth, waiting for pain to bite into her when he tightened that binding.
    It never came. Connor controlled the knot in spite of her struggles, securing both her wrists together in front of her before he released his legs, and she rolled over in a huffing tangle of cloak and robes.
    “Ye have too much spirit to make a good nun, Brina, but I would nae expect ye to know that.”
    “That is an unholy thing to say!”
    He reached down and lifted her to her feet with an ease that humiliated her. It shouldn’t have been right for him to be able to capture her so simply.
    “No, it isn’t. The church will no’ be pleased, I understand that well enough, but yer father made an agreement with me, and I plan to keep it. Yer father will be the one making peace with the church.”
    He leaned over, and a moment later she was hanging over his shoulder like a fallen deer. He clamped a hand over the backs of her thighs, sending heat into her face because she was suddenly acutely aware of how close his hand was to her bottom.
    “I will nae go with ye.”
    She straightened up but shrieked when he landed a hard slap directly on one side of her rear end, and collapsed back over his shoulder.
    “Ye’re going, one way or another, lass.” He kept his hand on her bottom, his fingers gently rubbing the spot he’d spanked.
    “Move yer hand away…”
    She was reduced to pleading once again, because her body was quivering in response to his touch. It made no sense, but she could not seem to control her responses, and she was more aware of her sex than she ever had been.
    “Only if ye behave, lass.”
    His hand moved, and she shuddered. Relief crossed her mind, but it did not banish the odd awareness completely. She couldn’t hear his feet hitting the ground, but he was moving through the trees, taking her away just as he had said he would.
    It was madness. The sort that would see them both condemned by the church. But he kept walking, and she heard the soft sound of horses. Connor set her down on her feet, and she drew in a soothing breath as her belly complained about being forced to lie over his hard shoulder. There seemed to be nothing soft about the man at all.
    Especially when it came to what he decided was the right course of action.
    Connor gained the back of his stallion without any further hesitation. His men were all mounting their horses, none of them looking as if they might have misgivings about what their laird was doing.
    She wasn’t the first woman who had been taken to satisfy honor…
    That thought sent a chill down her back, for it promised her a future that included being nothing more than a possession to a man who had reason to seek vengeance against her.
    He’d promised not to force himself on her, but there would be no one to stop him should he change his mind.
    She trembled and fought against the rope binding her.
    “I’ll give ye a toss-up, lass.”
    One of Connor’s burly retainers grasped her waist and lifted her up behind his